Week #10

Hola Familia,

 

This week has been a rough one! To put it in perspective on Monday our house ran out of gas in our kitchen(its all propane) so for a few days I was not able to cook anything. I had cereal and mangos and bread haha. Finally on Wednesday we were able to purchase some gas! But that same day our water randomly stopped working throughout our whole house! By this time i was just like of course this would happen to us! Luckily that only lasted one day. So I only had to skip one shower! Which is pretty gross for how much I sweat! But wait it got worse... some background info. There is a lady in our ward who does our laundry every week and she lives in my roommates area so i have to give them my laundry to take to this sisters house. Well I have been waiting for my clothes for like a week and i was wearing my last pair of garments...and guess what happened. They forgot to pick up my laundry! and they wouldnt be going back to that particular area of their zone for 3 days! This is where I failed the patience test this week. haha I didnt get like super mad but i still was a little angry at my roommates for a good 10 minutes. Im still alive and currently everything is in order at our house. I am wearing clean clothes garments and all!

 

Only one of our investigators progressed this week. Which makes me really sad. Also we didnt get to teach the C. family. I guess they were really busy! The one investigator that i feel is progressing really surprised me though! On Saturday we had a pretty full day planned to hit a bunch of less actives and teach them and invite them to church. Well at one of our appointments that day we recieved a phone call from our District leader saying there was a fireside at the stake center for future missionaries and their parents. If we had any investigators attending then we needed to go with them! Well one of my really good friends (Ch.) is a future missionary and is heading out to Uruguay in April was going along with his mom. His mom is one of investigators but she hardly listens to us. At first i was really bummed to go because that meant all the plans we made that day would fall through. But we went anyway and we accompanied Ch and his mom. We arrive at the meeting and immediately i notice that we are the only missionaries there. My mission president was on the stand and i swear he was staring me down! I told Elder S. that i didnt think we were supposed to be here! He told me not to worry because I didnt know. So the fireside was good minus the fact of feeling awkward the whole time. Afterwards we approached president and explained ourselves. He had no problem with it! He was actually really happy we came with our investigator. He wanted to meet her so it was really cool! Well the day after the fireside was sunday and she attended church! And later that day she listened to our message about the Evangelio! So it was a blessing to see her progress this week!

 

Thank you very much for the no bake cookie recipe i have made it three times this week! They dont have some ingredients here so i had to experiment with some substitutes! They turned out good! Thank you much!

 

This week I had the opportunity to teach my first English class! Lets just say English is really complex and extremely hard to teach! haha but it went well and i am going to have it every tuesday. Its an idea that elder s. had to try to get investigators to come to the church in a non threatening way. No investigators showed up but hopefully some will this week!

 

Well this week was decent minus the fact i failed my patience test! But that just showed me something that i needed to work on! Thank you for your support and your email :) I hope this email finds everyone happy! I love you all and you guys are in all my prayers! Ill see you next week!

 

Love,

Elder Milton

Week #9

Hola!

Well I am back! And I am still alive haha. This week was a very hot one. On Saturday it reached 122 degrees! Never in my life have I sweat so much. But I am doing good and I hope this email finds everyone happy!

Everyone sounds like they are doing good. School of course is no fun but thats nothing new. Going to the Gilbert Temple open house sounds really fun! Ive met a couple missionaries from Gilbert here so Im sure they are really excited!

Monumental moment this week. I bought my machete! I needed one for service! So I did not hesitate to buy one! Ironically that day was the day it was 122 degrees. It was really hot and I was hacking everything in sight. It was pretty fun! I decided to name my machete Moroni. Elder S. stole the name ammon so next best was Moroni.

I had the opportunity to visit the C. family again and the Mom is doing alright! She seemed really happy to see us and the family is doing okay. We taught them about the Restoration and the spirit was really strong. Afterwards we committed them to baptism so it was pretty awesome. However sunday morning she called us and said she wasnt going to make it to church again and that her foot was really bothering her. I was really sad. Now the baptismal date is postponed another week because they need to have attended church 3 times before they can be baptized! So i was pretty bummed.

Elder S. speaks really good english actually. He understands about 80 percent and he doesnt speak perfectly but hey nobody does haha. But we try not to speak english that much just because i need to learn spanish! The food here is pretty good. A ton of rice! Nothing i have had has been spicey! so Im really grateful for that haha.

I think I am going to have to learn Guanani at some point. Supposedly there are a lot of people in my mission who understand spanish but they cant speak it. Their preference is Guanani. I know like 5 words haha its really weird. But a lot of the people i visit try to teach me how to say certain phrases haha. Its really hard trying to learn a language through a language that you are currently learning if that makes any sense haha.

Well overall those were the major events this week! So nothing too crazy! Except the scorching heat! Overall this week was prety good. I worked hard so I am happy. Spanish is getting easier to understand! Speaking it is going alright. But i believe I am getting better! Elder S. thinks so too! So thank you guys for your prayers they have really helped! I love you guys very much and I pray for you guys all the time! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Milton

Week #8 - Letter Home Dated - December 26, 2013

Dear Family,

I hope this letter finds you guys in good spirits.  It was good to hear from you guys on Christmas!  I was definitely homesick on Christmas.  Luckily my district was feeling the same way so we all kind of comforted each other.  My companion, Elder Mc. is a grinch period.  He told me straight up the only way he can even deal with Christmas is if he was with his family... so he was in kind of a crabby mood on Christmas.  I kinda think that is why I was his companion.  Everyone was really mad at him for his attitude, but I kinda just let him be in his mood and helped him as much as I could.  I tried my best!  But now that Christmas is over, he is much better!

I am finally done with the MTC!  Even though I really feel like I just got here but it seems way too long!  They have a saying here, "Days feel like weeks but weeks feel like days."  It doesn't make sense, but it does.  haha.  I'm sure some of you guys can relate.  Also, I haven't really felt like I had a purpose unless we went proselyting.  So I am excited to start my real mission!

I've heard many different things about Paraguay.  Mostly from people who have been there.  haha.  Most common thing I've heard from Argentines are that the women are "really attractive and really easy."  haha  But I'm really looking forward to find out what this place is like and to start loving my people.  You will definitely hear about it!

Spanish is going alright.  I've learned as much as I can here in the MTC.  No offence to anything here, but I need to be completely immersed to fully learn.  That is something I look forward to but I also know it's going to take a lot of effort!  However, I am ready for the challenge, and I know by my diligence, the Lord will bless me accordingly!

I miss and love you guys very much!  I was bummed not to see you open my gifts, but I hope you enjoy them!  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Set some goals/resolutions.  They are healthy!  I will be writing you soon and also calling at the airport in Argentina!  I hope that surprises you!  I love you all!  Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,
Elder Milton

Week #8

Hola Familia!

First things first, I just read that email that you resent! I didnt get one last week so thats really weird...also the computers we were using were extremely slow. They only had 3 open for 4 missionaries so I sacrificed some of my time for my companion Elder S. But normally i should have 2 hours to email! So this week will be much better! Thank goodness Kody is okay! Oh my word that poor guy. Hes tough so im glad to see he recovered okay! Kali you look very pretty with your glasses! haha welcome to the family! Let me just say i absolutely hate wearing glasses! You guys will have to tell me how school is going also!

The jungle here in Paraguay is still green as ever! However the Lord has blessed me this week with a lot of rain! It felt amazing. It doesnt rain here too often but i hear when it rains it just comes down like no tomorrow! And this week it did! It wasnt fun in the aspect of walking around in mud and me forgetting my umbrella but i would take these conditions over blazing hot and humid anyday! Elder S. and I do a lot of walking. So something Ive decided to do is to memorize a scripture a day to pass the time and to help me with my spanish! The scriptures i memorized this week are The first vision, 1 Nephi 3:7, 1 Nephi 6:4, and Moses 1:39 all of which are relatively easy to memorize! The hardest part of spanish is the pronoun usage. They change places in the sentence all the time and in the scriptures its ever more difficult! 

Along with being in the Jungle comes jungle bugs. haha. Today i counted 11 bug bites on my arms and 8 on my legs! You know how much i complained about getting bug bites back at home...well imagine that times 1000. They itch of course but these ones seem to linger so much longer! Like for 3 days each! haha i laugh about it now but trust me i really do complain all the time about them. Alright along with bugs comes my first gross story on the mission. Yesterday all of us elders(4 of us) in my house ran out of food. However i had one pack of pasta left that i decided that we could all share just to fill our stomachs before bed. I bought this pack of noodles last monday because thats when we do our shopping obviously. So i put this pasta into the boiling water and let it cook and soften for a while. I come back to check on it and there are so many of these little tiny bugs in the pasta boiling! I was like how did this happen! So i looked in the wrapper and there were bugs all inside the package! It was nasty! However four elders were hungry. So we let the pasta boil and spent about an hour trying to pick out the bugs. After an hour we decided that it was consumable and i smothered it in BBQ sauce and we ate up. I report today that i am in fact still alive haha. 

Elder S. and I have this one family that we are currently teaching. The C. Family. There is 4 people in the family the parents and 2 daughters. These guys are awesome! We contacted them and taught them a little about the Book of Mormon and they accepted it! They asked for two so Elder S. and I were really excited! The next day we called them to ask them how they were doing and they invited us over for another lesson. which was completely unexpected! So we went over and they told us they read and prayed about it the night before as a family and they wanted to know more! Wow! Nobody does this haha. This lesson we taught them about The Gospel Of Jesus Christ and the spirit was so strong! We then invited them to church and they really wanted to come. The dad couldnt because he works but the mom and the daughters were super excited. So this sunday we called them to make sure they were coming but something awful happened. The mom was hanging up pictures with nails and i guess one fell on the ground and she stepped on it! It went all the way through her foot! So she had to go to the hospital and the only way she could get to church was by walking. So they werent going to be able to make it :( So today we are going to visit her and check up on her!

Our ward is extremely nice! Elder S. and I were fed 3 times this week so i was extremely grateful! We have lunch at the bishops house on fridays, then we had lunch on saturday with a family, and then we had lunch yesterday with another family! The family we ate at yesterday has a son his name is A. he just got home from his mission fairly recently from chile, and guess who one of his companions were...David Archuleta ahaa. He told me that so many girls would attend church just to see him! haha thats all i could translate from his spanish but thats pretty awesome!

This week was way better than last week! Im starting to familiarize my self with the area and the people but one thing that hasnt changed is i still dont speak or understand very much spanish. Its very frustrating. It seems like such task but right when i think im progresssing i talk to someone and dont understand a word they say! Haha this week i packed my english scriptures away and im readin only spanish material. at first it seemed hard but in the long run i think it is helping me!

Please send the package and mail to the mission address! Most areas in Paraguay dont have street names! So the misison offices distributes the mail! Overall this week has been a way better week than last week! I will let you know the progress of spanish and also my investigators as the week goes by :) thank you for your prayers and your email! You guys are in my prayers and i think about you guys all the time! I love and miss you all so much! I will be writing you next week! i love you!

Love,

Elder Milton

Week #7

Dear Mom,

 

Where to start haha. Paraguay is actually a really beautiful place! It is so green! They have hundreds of varieties of trees and they never stop blooming from what ive heard! The dirt here is also the reddest dirt I have ever seen! It is absolutely stunning. My area is about 30 minutes outside Asuncion itself but is very rural. We only have one real paved road. And all the other roads are like hiking trails! Haha I have probably lost a lot of weight this week from walking so much and from non stop sweating. This week has been a hard one. Its a lot to take in. Ive been pretty mute this week for the spanish here is super fast! I only share my testimony and a few basic princples!

 

There are two experiences I would like to share! First one is pretty funny. My third day here on wednesday i had the opportunity to go on Divisions or Splits and leave my area for the day. I was paired up with this guy named Elder Luke. He is way cool. Hes from Gilbert so me and him got along pretty well. Anyways our last appointment for the night we were just talking outside this members house when this random grandma lady came and stood next to me. I thought she was related to the family so I asked her how she was and what her name was.While i was doing this i guess the family told Elder Luke that she was literally crazy and that they try to avoid her all the time. Well i didnt know that haha so i was just trying to talk to her and be nice. Well things escalated i guess and she started calling me her boy friend and she tried to kiss me! So Elder Luke and I literally ran out of our appointment with this Grandma chasing us! Haha it was actually really kind of funny. We out ran her pretty fast so nothing happened after that.

 

On saturday I had to attend this baby viewing in the chapel. It was really sad. I didnt really know what was being said but it was a sad day. I couldnt bear to even go view the baby. I kept my distance and gave my respect to the little casket. My companion shared a message about Resurrection and it was really good. But the funeral affected me for the rest of the day. I couldnt really stop thinking about it! I know the Plan of Salvation is real and that it gives me comfort. But still I cant imagine losing any of my kids! So it was a pretty hard day!

 

Sunday was a good day! They had me present myself in Sacrement meeting. I felt like I did pretty okay! Afterwards a few people told me that my spanish was really good for only being here less than a week so that made me feel really good. And for the most part I understood everyones testimonies. So Sunday was a definite confidence booster!

 

Its been a long week but Im grateful to have started serving! I finally have a purpose and people to teach. Now i just have to get past this language barrier haha. I have been studying pretty hard. I know The Lord will bless me if im diligent so I am doing my best. Thank you for your time and your emails! I love and miss all you guys!  I will be writing you guys next week! Thank you for your prayers!

 

Love,

Elder Milton

Week #7 - Letter Mailed Home - December 19, 2013

Dear Family,

Today I received your letters!  Thank you so much!  I hope this letter finds you guys in good holiday spirits.  I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  This letter will probably arrive sometime in January, but who knows!  Mail I've decided is pretty unpredictable.  Please email me pictures and details of your Christmas this year.

Christmas definitely makes me miss home!  We pulled out a couple trees and decorations to display around the CCM (MTC in Spanish).  Let's just say it's given me some homesickness.  But I was there in Safford in spirit and I hope you guys enjoyed your gifts  :)

I just got done at the temple for my second to last time here at the Buenos Aires Temple.  It is so pretty. Speaking of temples, I've been kind of thinking about how cool it would be to be the head Architect for some temples!  I love Architecture and it would be pretty sweet  :)

My CCM President (Pres Openshaw) teaches like nothing I've ever seen.  He's teaching a whole group of 40 missionaries a lesson, but I feel that all the lessons/firesides we have are just for me!  He is 100% a vessel of the Spirit.  I had an experience a couple of days ago where he was bearing his testimony and he told us the reason why God has called so many Sister missionaries at this time is because families need to be raised by TWO return missionaries.  Both parents need to prepare their children for the Second Coming of Christ.  So after hearing this, my mind was blown!  I'd never thought about it like that before... But I had a feeling that I should read my Patriarchial Blessing.  So I did and it said that I would be preparing people to receive the Second Coming of Christ!  Almost word for word what the President said.  It was an amazing experience!

Everything seems well with the family.  You guys are the best!  Thank you for your love and support.  I don't know where I would be without you.  I love you guys and I will write you again next week.  :)

Love,
Elder Milton